Originally Posted by bocastephen
I still don't see how they will do this. The line real estate and the lines themselves are owned by the airports and the airports have agreements with their airline tenants. The TSA can't do anything about how the pre-checkpoint lines are setup....except whine and bark about it.
It's the mission creep that is dangerous. It was airline-contractors who were previously doing the ID checks and at the same time enforcing the elite lines. If TSA does the ID checks, the airlines are no longer motivated to employ the contractors (who were generally useless anyway, but were tolerable at enforcing elite lines).
TSA ID checkers may enforce the elite lines for now as a "courtesy" to the airlines, but they can stop that at any time while spouting the "need to focus on more important things because of security" excuse.
And before you know it you already have TSA agents in place as gatekeepers able to enforce the "registered traveler" line for those willing to sell their privacy and the SSSS line for the rest of us.